What’s Inside

Abdul-Rehman Malik shares the significance of Ramadan in a Chapel Talk and explores religious traditions in classroom discussions. On Monday, April 4, the third day of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, Abdul-Rehman Malik, an associate research scholar and lecturer in Islamic Studies at Yale Divinity School, offered a Chapel Talk and spent time with students in back-to-back sections of the class Religion, Race, and Gender. He began his visit to St. Paul’s School the night before, when he addressed students in the Interfaith/DEIJ Hub in Sheldon.

An award-winning journalist, Malik also serves as the program coordinator at Yale University’s Council on Middle East Studies and has been a regular contributor for BBC Radio. In conjunction with The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Malik hosts “This Being Human,” a podcast exploring the kaleidoscope of contemporary Muslim experience and identity.

The year’s holiest month for the world’s more than two billion Muslims, Ramadan begins with a new moon and is observed with fasting, prayer, reflection and community. Malik noted during his Chapel Talk that believers are asked to forsake food and drink during the daylight hours, and the intimacy of Ramadan begins in the dark mornings. While emphasizing the themes of mercy, compassion and justice that are central to Ramadan, Malik shared memories of his observances as a child. He recalled “splendid meals at odd times” and the encouragement to eat, eat, in the quiet time before the sun rose; the sounds of his mother cooking, he said, were the sounds of love. Now, he prepares the food ahead of the private and personal act of fasting, which is ultimately about what one is not doing: When denied food and drink, one is conscious of the words and thoughts left inside.

After attending Chaplain and Teacher of Humanities Sam Lovett’s section of Religion, Race, and Gender, Malik attended that of Chaplain and Teacher of Humanities Walter Thorne. In keeping with the work being done by the class in the early days of Spring Term, Thorne asked Malik for his definition of religion. Malik described religion as the human response to the divine. A faith must meet the needs of the moment, he noted, and that requires reexamination of texts and dynamic rather than static traditions.

Malik spent the remainder of the class answering students’ questions, which included wondering who leads the change in any religion without a designated head (such as the Pope in Catholicism); contemplating the challenge of balancing inclusiveness with traditions; and exploring how gendered languages and translation issues affect the nuances and interpretations of religious texts.

For Thorne, what stood out was the way Malik talked about the need for religious traditions to speak to issues of justice in the modern world as well as the way he explained traditions as valuable resources that are constantly changing and developing over time.

Reflecting on Malik’s visit, Lovett called it a powerful reminder of how transformative it is to host creative people on campus and give students the opportunity to engage with them in a variety of forums and formats. “I hope that our learning and conversation with him will continue,” he said.